1. The extent to which Billiton PLC Board of Directors complies with the requirement of board effectiveness principles in terms of diversity, skills and experience are illustrated within the table below: “The interests of those who have effective control over a firm can differ from the interests of those who supply the firm with external finance. The problem, commonly referred to as a principal-agent problem, grows out of the separation of ownership and control and of corporate outsiders and insiders. In the absence of the protections that good governance supplies, asymmetries of information and difficulties of monitoring results in capital providers who lack control over the corporation, finding it risky and costly to protect themselves from the opportunistic behavior of manager and controlling shareholder.” (OECD) The ramifications of poor …show more content…
Since it operates a two-parent company; BHP Billiton Limited and BHP Billiton Plc, operated as a unified board and management team, it will be required to comply with corporate governance requirements of both countries. Furthermore, BHP Billiton Limited has a primary listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in Australia and BHP Billiton Plc has a premium listing on the UK Listing Authority’s Official List. Its ordinary shares are admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange in the UK and secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. BHP Billiton Limited American Depositary Receipts and BHP Billiton Plc ADRs trade on the New York Stock Exchange in the US. In light of these listings, it is required to comply with listing requirements in all these countries since it operate as a single economic unit. To this end, the table below addresses how the company complies with the UK Corporate Governance Code under board effectiveness based on